I was watching tv last night, on an american, not a canadian tv station, and an ad came up for the store Old Navy. The music is the song Blue Alert. It was quite a surprise. They are selling blue jeans.

You can check out the ad from the home page at Old Navy's web site (http://www.oldnavy.com click on "CHECK OUT OUR TV AD"). The older I get, the more I realize that the successful marketing folks are surely having (some) fun.

Great visuals on the ad, and I believe it's Madeleine, Jarkko... it sounds the way I remember her singing it. I'm surprized that they didn't give the title more audio exposure. As it's fading, you hear "blue... [some ad verbiage]... alert" [end of ad at its most faded point with "alert." Not discounting the value of subliminial impact, but I'd have wanted to give the name greater audio prominence... and done the fade-out on the beginning of the next phrase. The ad has its subleties, yet remains fairly blatant... and "Blue Alert" fits it well.

I was also very surprised when I walked into a Boston Pizza in Calgary a couple of weeks ago and saw Leonard's face on a Create your own Pasta (Tuesday night) poster. I almost yelled at the waiter--what is Leonard doing up there? He looked at me blankly--obviously had no idea who I was referring to. Ok well why not I had to ask myself. Maybe it is a spiritual message to me to do some creative work?

st theresa wrote:I was also very surprised when I walked into a Boston Pizza in Calgary a couple of weeks ago and saw Leonard's face on a Create your own Pasta (Tuesday night) poster. I almost yelled at the waiter--what is Leonard doing up there? He looked at me blankly--obviously had no idea who I was referring to. Ok well why not I had to ask myself. Maybe it is a spiritual message to me to do some creative work?

St. Theresa, Any chance you can get your hands on a copy of the ad?? I'd love to see it (or even get a copy myself)

To answer all the questions, I wish I had been thinking at the time, but am now 350km from the particular Boston Pizza where the poster was hanging. There were other stars--I think David Bowie hung next to Leonard in some kind of theme restaurant. If some Calgary resident sees this, and can get out to the BP just past Midnapore, close to the CO-OP shopping center, they might be able to take a pic. No Paula he wasn't eating pizza --the poster is one I have seen before in blue outline. Next time I see something like that I will be sure to take a pic.--Just typed in Leonard Cohen and Boston Pizza and this link came up. http://www.fest-of-ale.bc.ca/foodfun06.html

The posters are still up.I asked (because I am just that cheeky) and no, they would not send me a poster. Nor could they send an image . But they were extremely nice about it. The very nice lady even gave me the names of two advertising agencies they deal with but at this stage I ran out of steam.

hahah birdonawire
thanks for checking that out --I had begun to think that this was another of my leonard dreams. I was there with my mother in law who misidentified a stranger as her brother in law Archie. She wasn't too sure who I was for that matter; life is stranger than fiction sometimes.